Baker in later January 1943. Carlos Nieto is credited with being the first convert - he was from Barranquilla. Dorothy Beecher Baker, later a Hand of the Cause, had a daughter, Winifred Louise Baker, who pioneered to Colombia in January 1943. Later in 1943 Dorothy spent a month in Colombia visiting the Baháʼís and her daughter. By January 1944 there were six Colombian converts to the religion and they helped elect the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly which was in Bogotá that January. In 1943 during the annual Baháʼí convention of the United States, Shoghi Effendi announced a Northern-and Southern- international convention which would include representatives from each state and province from the United States and Canada and each republic of Latin America. This 1944 centenary of the religion's All-America Convention's Colombian delegate was Josephina Rodriquez. By September there were 25 Baháʼís in Bogotá with about an equal number studying the religion actively. By June 1945 a campaign of letter exchanges had raised an assembly in Mogotes and there were converts among people at a leper colony at Contratacion and individuals in Cartagena and Medellín and interested responses from several other cities. Around October 1946 Gayle Woolson took an extended trip through several towns of Colombia including Cali, Medellín, Cartagena and Barranquilla as well as some towns in Ecuador. Growth As 1947 opened assemblies were added in Cali, Medellín, Cartagena and Contratacion. Gayle Woolson was again touring several cities of Colombia - Medellín, Cartagena, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga and Mogotes. The members of the Medellín assembly were Francisco Onego R., Bernarda Yepes, Margarita Caicedo, Hernando Jaramillo A., William Gomez M., Dario Echavarria, John Carder, Augusto Mora, Jose Ramos. By July 1947 a regional committee for South America Central American was organizing developments across the continent. Retrospectively a stated purpose for the committee was to facilitate a shift in the balance of roles from North American guidance and Latin cooperation to Latin guidance and North American cooperation. The process was well underway by 1950 and was to be enforced about 1953. Meanwhile, a regional committee oversaw Colombian activities headed by Dr. Saul Hernández out of Bogotá and Woolson's travels were covered by newspaper and radio press. The second South American Baháʼí Congress was celebrated in Santiago, Chile, in January, 1948. Though Colombia had had more new assemblies form, it was too remote for general logistics. Colombia focused its efforts on welcoming Baháʼís who